Beverly Hills Begins First Phase of Bag Ban

Beverly Hills is among the latest cities to have decided to go plastic-free. Taking an effort towards the direction, it recently started its first phase of bans on plastic bags. The City of Beverly Hills mentioned in a press release that shoppers will no longer have the convenience of opting for free plastic bags at five large stores in the city. If they need to shop at these specific stores, they will either have to carry their own reusable bags or pay for the ones offered at the stores.

Beverly Hills Plastic Bag Ban Getting Rid of Plastic Slowly

In April, the City Council had voted for a plastic bag ban proposal in the region. The ban will be implemented in various phases and has been modeled after the ordinance developed by Los Angeles. The first phase of the program will affect large retail stores as well as huge supermarkets. Whole Foods, CVS Pharmacy, Pavilion’s and two of Rite Aid pharmacy stores will have to comply with the program, as of now.

The second phase of the program will begin next year in January. Once it is introduced, the ban will widen to convenience stores, small grocers, food markets and pharmacies. Apart from that, recyclable bags will also be made available to the customers. Small stores will be free to decide whether they want to charge for the bags or hand them out free of cost.

To promote the use of wholesale reusable bags, the city authorities have even started distributing reusable bags for free to residents at various community events. They aim to educate residents about the benefits of reusable bags and the ill-effects of plastic bags.

Piling up Wholesale Reusable Bags After Bag Ban

The issues created by plastic bag waste are not hidden anymore. Apart from creating a sore eye, they also have some major harmful effects like eating up the landfill space and creating health hazards for animals as well as birds. A ban on plastic bags may not be the best way of dealing with plastic waste issues, but it will certainly help to some extent as the number of plastic bags used will be reduced. This, in turn, will decrease the plastic bags that end up getting dumped at the landfills.

Residents need to spend on wholesale reusable bags just once and derive their benefits by using them over and over. These bags are not just eco-friendly, but also stronger than plastic bags, which can only be used a couple of times.